A Bit more than I could chew...

I had such grand plans for this part of the trip.  Having never been to Ireland and going by myself, I felt that I had to have places to stay and a general idea of where I wanted to go and what I wanted to see before I started so I had plotted a coarse and made reservations at each stopping place.  I wanted to see as much of the county as I could so I made a plan of what I would then see for each day.  As it is with all plans, mine didn't quite work out the way that I thought they would and I figured out very quickly that I had to manage my time better.  When I was finished at Blarney Castle it was around 6 pm and I had about 2 hours to get to my Bed & Breakfast for the night.  If I would have been smart, I would have gotten a B&B around Cork, but I wanted to drive along the coast the next day so I found this nice place right on the water in Skibbereen.  The problem is that I got lost (I ended up going completely the wrong way) and what should have just taken me 90 minutes took me 3 hours.  The place was hard to find, which didn't help, and when I arrived they were not waiting for me.  Come to find out I had requested Wednesday night, not Tuesday night for my reservation.  Lucky for me they were there and they were gracious enough to allow me to stay the night.  The owner called the pub just up the street to see if they would stay open  long enough for me to come and eat (I hadn't eaten since that morning) and I had fish and chip Irish style (it was tasty).  The B&B was nice but because she wasn't ready for me, my stay was a bit awkward.

The Castle

View from the Castle

From Skibbereen my plan was to drive up the coast and arrive at Killarney.  The drive was wonderful and I had blue skies the whole way.  I spent most of my time on the side of the road, just looking at and taking pictures of the beautiful scenery.

 

My first stop on my way to Killarney was Dantry, in County Cork.  The Irish name for Bantry is Beanntraige. The name came from a son of Conor MacNessa called Beannt. Conor MacNessa was one of the kings of Ireland at the time of Christ. The ending 'raige' in the name means the people or territory of "Beannt" Bantry Bay is one of the finest and safest harbours in Europe and is situated in a strategic position on the edge of the Atlantic ocean. Being very deep with no dangerous or sand banks and sheltered from most winds by the mountains which surround it, from earliest times it has been used as a haven by fishermen and merchant ships.    In the last 20 years, Bantry has revived to become a leader in Mariculture with mussels the main product. It is now a vibrant market town and popular tourist destination, looking to the future but aware of its heritage.

The road going into Bantry



St. Brendan the Navigator statue in Bantry town square



Bantry Town Square



 

I found these narrow roads in every town I visited.

As I drove out of Bantry, there was road construction and I ended up taking a bit of a detour which caused a delay in my getting to Killary as early as I had wanted to, but it allowed me to again see some beautiful country.   The detour took me down to Castletown then over to Canermore and up to Allihres, over to Urhin.  These pictures are just along the way to Eyeries.
 

 

Eyeries is remarkable: one of the most south-westerly villages in Ireland, it is situated on a bluff that overlooks Coulagh Bay and beyond that, the Atlantic Ocean.  Hundreds of years ago, Eyeries was known as Kilcatherine Parish, called after a cleric named Caitighearn who was brought from France by the Beara Luingseachain in the middle of the 3rd century. To quote in Gaelic the tradition handed down from generation to generation of the Gaelic speakers of the parish: "I lar treas aoise thainig se". So Christianity existed in this parish long before the advent of St. Patrick.  Eyeries Village is renowned for the bright, pastel paintwork of its terraced houses, the stunning view of the surrounding hillsides, the sweeping vista of the Beara Peninsula, the always-changing face of Coulagh Bay, the rising swell of the distant Kerry Mountains, and an unbroken horizon that is often painted in stunning sunsets.

It took me about 2 hours from Eyeries to get to Killarney, mainly because I stopped so many times to take pictures.  I am going to finish this post with the best of them.